Thaumatodracon – the Wonder Dragon

Post author:Adam S. Smith
Post published:29/08/2017
Post comments:0 Comments
Post category:Announcement Germany Lyme Regis New paper New taxon Palaeoart Rhomaleosaurus Taxonomy

Read more about the article <i>Thaumatodracon</i> – the Wonder Dragon

The Lower Saxony State Museum commissioned artist Luzia Soares to create a stylistic impression of Thaumatodracon. Copyright L. Soares 2017

In 2012 I co-presented a poster at the SVP annual meeting on a new plesiosaur from Lyme Regis, UK (see my article about it here). The long awaited follow up paper was finally published this summer in the latest volume of Palaeontographica A (Smith and Araújo 2017) and the beast now has a name, Thaumatodracon wiedenrothi, meaning ‘Wiedenroth’s Wonder Dragon’....

A new Lyme Regis pliosaur

Post author:Adam S. Smith
Post published:31/10/2012
Post comments:0 Comments
Post category:Commentary Conference Germany Lyme Regis New taxon Pliosaur preparation Rhomaleosaurus

Earlier this month I co-authored a poster at SVP 2012 describing a new pliosaur from the Sinemurian of Lyme Regis (Smith and Araújo 2012). I was unable to attend the conference in person so my collaborator and friend Ricardo Araujo was on hand to present our preliminary findings. Ricardo Araújo stands proudly next to our poster at SVP 2012....

Plesiosaurus at the James Mitchel Museum, Galway, Ireland

Post author:Adam S. Smith
Post published:11/04/2006
Post comments:0 Comments
Post category:Commentary Exhibit Lyme Regis Plesiosaurus

I finally found the time to visit the James Mitchel Museum at the University of Galway, Ireland. The main plesiosaur in the museum is on display, mounted high on the wall at the far end of the museum (figured below). The fossil is from Lyme Regis and is identified as Plesiosaurus dolichodeirus. Most unstudied plesiosaurs such as this are labelled...

Lyme Regis plesiosaur sold at auction

Post author:Adam S. Smith
Post published:09/01/2006
Post comments:0 Comments
Post category:Lyme Regis Plesiosaurus

The almost complete three-dimensional skeleton of a plesiosaur from the Lower Jurassic of Lyme Regis, the famous fossil-hunting spot in Dorset, England, sold at auction last December (2005) at a closing bid of £30000 (some web-sites report the figure as over £35000). The specimen was collected about 20 years ago and is estimated to be 3.5m long. It has been...